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| Looks like he's been crying. Or he's just drunk. |
You know the drill: MLS Cup
dominates, while the 18 (or 20) other Major League Soccer teams quietly start
figuring out how they’ll knock the eventual champion off its pedestal. Circle
of life, etc.
More MLS Cup Crap
For all that it might not come
through, I’m actually pretty excited about this year’s MLS Cup. I’ve got a
clear, strong voter interest (which, my luck, spells a Seattle Sounders win,
goddammit). Whatever happened with them all season long (e.g. Seattle sucking
for 2/3 of it), both teams hit the final playing well and, on top of that, each
team’s stars are shining. That goes for the attacking players as much as
anybody, which could explain why Goal.com’s predictions post sees goals, goals,
goals in MLS fans’ future (to be fair, one prediction only gets to “goal, goal”
and, also of interest, gives both to Seattle). A related article, this one a compare/contrast between Jozy Altidore and Jordan Morris, sticks with a similar
focus.
I’ll put up more thorough personal
theories tomorrow (good lord willing), but part of me wonders how much faith in
high scoring grows from a form of recency bias. Some articles talk about loosely
about how either team attacks (great!) and defends, but without much
discussion/acknowledgement of particular circumstances. For instance, how much
of the “vulnerability” in Toronto FC’s defense grew from the Montreal Impact
series alone? Isn’t it just as important, if not more important, to note that
they shut out New York City FC in their first round series, while also allowing
19 fewer goals through the length of the regular season, as was noted in a
write-up on Drew Moor’s move to/upgrading of Toronto’s “rugged” defense. (Alternately,
is it rugged and vulnerable, y’know, like how Daniel Craig played James Bond in
the last Bond flick?) The point could be right or wrong, but the basic
assumption tracks a logic similar to writing up a “what happened to Lodeiro”
piece based on Seattle’s series against the Colorado Rapids (related: Have you
watched that tape, Toronto? Can you watch that? Please?).
Or, to crawl out of the other
side of the rabbit hole, maybe Nick Hagglund will give away a cheap goal, as
noted in a “young players to watch” post I read (Hagglund made the cut and, in
fairness, he is genuinely of interest). By the same token, maybe he scores a
goal and gets an assist, too. (Or maybe Montreal didn’t game-plan Hagglund fer
shit?)
At any rate, yeah, looking
forward to MLS Cup Saturday. Now, looking elsewhere…
Michael Parkhurst Moves South
Reports confirm that Parkhurst
will anchor Atlanta United FC’s backline for their inaugural year, or at least
play in it (or eye it angrily from the bench). While that’s hardly a
blockbuster move, it’s one I’ll watch with interest, especially after Parkhurst’s
stumbling 2016 season. Parkhurst’s work last season files under the question of
how much he struggled versus how much his teammates hung him out to dry. A move
to a new club answers questions like that…or it might just reinforce rumors and
allegations of Parkhurst’s decline.
Speaking of Declines…
The Vancouver Whitecaps gave the ol’ “bon voyage” to once-star midfielder Pedro Morales. I predicted bad things
for Vancouver this season, and a lot of my doubts centered on Morales. Most my
hang-ups on that, however, assumed he wouldn’t play enough; the reality proved
worse in the end – e.g. that he would play, just not well. Morales gets at one
of those key definitions in sports: the difference between a great season and a
good career. Morales leaves with decent numbers, just too many of them
concentrated into too few seasons. Over time, he didn’t so much as hurt the
club, as fail to live up to his best times. It happens, I suppose. Hope he
finds a new home and a lot more “moments.”
The Quiet Man for the Job
Sports Illustrated reported this
morning that Curt Onalfo is the favorite to succeed Bruce Arena as the Los
Angeles Galaxy’s head coach. To make fun of myself a little, that’s something
close to an “Occam’s Razor” answer to all the meandering threads I put into LA’s
coaching replacement in this earlier post. Unless LA goes big ‘n’ foreign,
something they’re publicly wary to try, sticking with a more modest candidate,
but one who knows the system and the players, adds up pretty cleanly. Being the
favorite isn’t the same as getting the keys to the office (and the locked bar
therein, presumably), but there’s enough logic in Onalfo’s ascension to support
the theory.
Right. All for today. Just two
days to go till MLS Cup….and I got nothing for polls. Nothing, I tell you!
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